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Last Active 05-28-18 3:54 pm
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| Visions' (Belated) Best of 2017
Been busy over the festive period so could only publish this now. It's been a good year for music imo, but this may be as a result of me making more of an active effort to seek out new releases in comparison with the previous years. | | 25 |  | Forest Swords
Compassion
The brainchild of Liverpool-born Matthew Barnes, Compassion is an eclectic foray into electronic music of the more ambient persuasion. The songs on this record transmit a wide array of atmospheres, whether it be the dark and moody musings of ‘The Highest Flood’ or the more uplifting and enlightening tone of ‘Arms Out’. There are also some interesting instrumental choices on occasion here, the undeniably catchy and reverberated saxophone motif on ‘Raw Language’ being an example of such. All in all these elements amount to an album that is as surreal as it is tranquil.
Favourite track: Arms Out | | 24 |  | Sunless
Urraca
Although Ulcerate-core might be a well that’s running a little dry of late, with an increasing amount of bands offering underwhelming tributes to the esteemed New Zealand act, Sunless are an example of how to play this niche style of technical death metal in an engaging manner. Despite not really doing anything different to most of the bands in this style, it’s the quality of the individual elements on Urraca that see Sunless succeed. Combining dizzying, angular riffs with a decent sense of apocalyptic atmosphere, this is definitely an album to check out for fans of the Ulcerate-Gorguts-Deathspell style of tech-death.
Favourite track: Wishes Fallen on Deafened Ears | | 23 |  | Amenra
Mass VI
This is actually the first Amenra album I’ve ever listened to, and so it’s hard to judge Mass VI without the context of its predecessors. However what’s apparent about this record is the sheer intensity of the sprawling doom riffs and tortured vocals. In many ways this record, like countless amounts of post-metal records before it, is comparable to the ocean. The slow, heavy riffs crash down like a tsunami ravaging everything in its path, while the clean guitar sections and the accompanying hushed vocals conjure images of more gentle shores. Yet despite these two extremes the record sounds incredibly steady, these dynamic shifts arriving in predictable-yet-effective fashion.
Favourite track: Plus Pre’s De Toi | | 22 |  | Mount Eerie
A Crow Looked At Me
A record with quite a famed backstory by now, it’s the context behind this album which allows it to be so effective. After the loss of his wife to cancer, former The Microphones frontman Phil Elverum set about taking an uncompromising and unflinching look at loss. The result is A Crow Looked at Me, an extremely austere indie folk release which can be extremely difficult to listen to at times. The contrast between the more stripped-back instrumentals and the lyrically-dense vocal stylings of Elverum is striking, and some of the lyrics themselves are outright painful. For being able to articulate the extremely complicated emotions he would have been going through while writing the record, Elverum deserves the utmost credit.
Favourite track: Swims | | 21 |  | Father John Misty
Pure Comedy
It’s fair to say that this record crept up on me somewhat. Initially finding it disappointing due to its more patient and meditative approach than its incredible predecessor, I Love You, Honeybear, this record is the definition of a ‘grower’. Much will be made of Misty’s social and political commentaries on Pure Comedy, but ultimately its the more musical qualities of the record that sees Misty producing yet another fine piece of work. The majority of the album comprises of piano/acoustic guitar ballads, and the immaculate production allows additional flavours like strings and horns to complement the main framework. To top it off the album ends fantastically, with ‘So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain’ and ‘In Twenty Years or So’ providing an extremely poignant conclusion.
Favourite track: In Twenty Years or So | | 20 |  | Samsara Blues Experiment
One With the Universe
Samsara Blues Experiment are one of the more refreshing bands in stoner rock, often featuring ambitious song structures and hard rock nuances in their sound. This continues on One With the Universe, an album which, although not as cohesive as efforts like Long Distance Trip, sees the band sounding more progressive than ever before. The individual riffs on this record are predictably fuzzy and groovy, and the emerging space rock and eastern influences help to make this a more distinguished listen. As well as this, opener ‘Vipassana’ may be Samsara’s best song to date, featuring an utterly seductive synth solo which serves as the album’s highlight.
Favourite track: Vipassana | | 19 |  | The War on Drugs
A Deeper Understanding
One of the more universally-hyped records on the list, my fondness for The War on Drugs is perhaps slightly less significant than that of the many fans the band have managed to create since their inception. However I definitely saw the appeal in their previous record, Lost in the Dream, and this continues with A Deeper Understanding. The band take on a slightly more polished approach on this record, the production here offering a crisper sound than its predecessor, meaning the shoegaze influences in their heartland rock sound have subsided in place of a more pop-based approach. Some of the songwriting displayed within is brilliant, songs like ‘Pain’ and ‘Holding On’ really impressing with their climactic structures and lush instrumentation, making for an extremely colourful listen.
Favourite track: Pain | | 18 |  | The Great Old Ones
EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy
H.P. Lovecraft worship isn’t exactly uncharted territory for extreme metal bands, but in EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy it’s refreshing to hear a record which genuinely comes close to matching the atmosphere and foreboding featured in the works of the esteemed horror author. There’s a real sense of urgency featured throughout the atmospheric black metal odysseys here, with a number of tremolo riffs and gritty rasped vocals coated in a sumptuous layer of reverb to create an utterly infernal sound.
Favourite track: The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Read my review of the album here: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/72970/The-Great-Old-Ones-EOD-A-Tale-of-Dark-Legacy/ | | 17 |  | Oxbow
Thin Black Duke
I decided to finally take a plunge into the music of Oxbow this year, and this record definitely served as a good starting point. Pushing blues rock into experimental and symphonic territories, the record features squeaky clean production which really helps to bring the wide array of instrumentation to full fruition. A lot of these songs feature string sections, adding an incredible amount of character to otherwise-traditional rock-based guitar riffs, and the eccentric and dynamic nature of the band’s vocalist provides a sense of quirkiness to the experience. The vocals themselves will be a point of contention for a lot of listeners, but there’s no denying the shrieks, murmurs and croons of Eugene Robinson makes this a very idiosyncratic listen.
Favourite track: Letter of Note | | 16 |  | Toby Driver
Madonnawhore
Experimental rock/metal band Kayo Dot quickly became my favourite band in the latter half of this year, and so this Toby Driver release was the closest thing I could come to experiencing new music that sounded even remotely close to the Brooklyn outfit. Madonnawhore displays a mesmerising atmosphere through languid, slowcore-inspired songwriting. The clean guitar melodies are drenched in reverb, giving the record a genuinely ethereal atmosphere, and Driver’s commanding vocal interpretations of longtime collaborator Jason Byron’s enchanting lyrics further this surreal tone.
Favourite track: The Scarlet Whore | | 15 |  | King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Flying Microtonal Banana
Despite ‘Rattlesnake’ being one of the most overrated songs of the year, Flying Microtonal Banana is one of those albums where the sum of its parts is greater than the individual songs that make up the album. An interesting experiment into microtonal tuning via psychedelic rock, this record makes for a consistently enjoyable listen throughout its runtime, each song providing its own unique atmosphere. However despite this experimental nature, the album is extremely catchy, something which has allowed the Aussie outfit to grow into the universally-adored band they are today. Whether it be the unrelenting rock percussion in ‘Open Water’ or the trippy, meditative ritual that is the title track, this is an album which will have something for everybody despite its zany approach.
Favourite track: Open Water | | 14 |  | Grails
Chalice Hymnal
Chalice Hymnal has easily the best production of any album on this list; so much so that this element alone is enough to make it a captivating experience. The textural detail within is staggering, allowing these post-rock ventures to have a distinct psychedelic flavour to them. Stray piano keys tumble in and out of the mix along with some interesting post-production choices to create a dynamic atmosphere, so much so that the role of the songwriting is diminished; the direction of the songs doesn’t matter as much when every single detail within the album is colourful and fully realised.
Favourite track: New Prague | | 13 |  | Blaze of Perdition
Conscious Darkness
This Polish outfit have a number of elements which keeps their take on atmospheric black metal interesting. The songwriting here is deceptively varied from song-to-song, and there seems to be a much greater emphasis on rhythm than with a lot of the band’s genre contemporaries. ‘Ashes Remain’ is one of the most impressive metal songs of the year, transforming from a blast-beat-infested black metal assault in its first half to a spacey, stripped back post-rock jam in its second half. Conscious Darkness is a record which ebbs and flows between moments of pure aggression to surprisingly competent melody, with a thoroughly impressive performance in particular from vocalist Paweł Marzec, whose often-manic shrieks and guttural rasps only add to the intensity. To top this off, the album’s modern production values help to complement the dynamism within.
Favourite track: Ashes Remain | | 12 |  | Max Richter
Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works
I’ve never read anything by Virginia Woolf before, but if anything convinces me to take the plunge it’s this album. A mix of modern classical and ambient music, the atmosphere on Three Worlds ranges from relatively sanguine to utterly crushing. The three pieces of chamber music at the beginning of the album get things off to a sophisticated and almost-rustic start, and the ambient interludes in the album’s middle section help to create a sense of unease. However this all serves as a setup for the closing song, ‘The Waves: Tuesday’, in which Virginia Woolf’s suicide note is read out before twenty minutes of swelling strings pummel the listener. The crescendo in the closing five minutes is one of the most spine-tingling pieces of music all year, and an excellent tribute to Woolf herself.
Favourite track: XVI. The Waves: Tuesday | | 11 |  | Boring Bathtimes
The Bardo of Becoming
The fourth full-length instalment in a series of albums that tell a very interesting narrative by Southampton-based Boring Bathtimes, this has to be one one of the most ambitious yet overlooked projects I’ve heard all year. Boring Bathtimes takes lo-fi folk music and completely contorts it into an experimental beast, with drone, noise, jazz and black metal sounds all entering the fray. The whole affair is extremely consistent in how utterly bleak it sounds, but the ways in which this bleakness is achieved vary, from the poignancy of acoustic opener ‘Child of Buddha Nature’ to the manic, atonal saxophone squealing in ‘The Channel Branch: At the Southern Gate’. There’s even an acoustic cover of Burzum’s ‘Dunkelheit’ here, and its this element of unpredictability that means the album is engaging from start to finish.
Favourite track: A Low Tide for the Moon to Come and Sit Beside | | 10 |  | Fleet Foxes
Crack-Up
It says a lot about my adoration for this band when, despite this record being slightly underwhelming, it still makes my top ten of the year. 2011’s Helplessness Blues became one of my favourite records of all time in the last couple of years and so my anticipation for Crack-Up was boundless. What strikes me about this record is how it’s simultaneously very adventurous and very consistent. The songs within use more progressive structures than your average folk record, venturing off into all manner of dynamic shifts such as key and tempo changes, abrupt loud-quiet dynamics and experimental song structures. Yet despite these occasionally-jarring changes the songs flow extremely cohesively, making the album experience a very easy and fluid one. The record’s defining feature, however, is its pristine production, allowing the wide array of instrumentation to intertwine perfectly.
Favourite track: I am All That I Need | | 9 |  | Bestia Arcana
Holokauston
Fronted by Naas Alcameth, a man responsible for one of my favourite black metal records of this decade in Akhyls’ 2015 effort The Dreaming I, the sounds that Holókauston bring to the table may be predictable, but they’re incredibly effective. An album where the cover art perfectly complements the music, Bestia Arcana have produced one of the most genuinely apocalyptic-sounding black metal records in recent memory. The production may sound a little sanitized for those who prefer their black metal a little rougher around the edges, but this makes the album sound absolutely massive, the tremolo-picked riffs and spacey ambient sections creating a dense and foreboding atmosphere.
Favourite track: Howling | | 8 |  | Information Flash
Ego Murda Sound
I’ll admit that my knowledge of electronic music is minimal to say the least, so going into this record was a bit of a stab in the dark for me. However I was thoroughly impressed by the French outfit’s ability to launch their dance rhythms into the stratosphere with some excellent production and engaging songwriting. Ego Murda Sound ventures into breakbeat, outsider house and jungle and does an excellent job of being simultaneously accessible and experimental. The songs on here are so dynamic; ‘Early in the Morning’ shows off the album’s melodic side with some gorgeous piano melodies, opener ‘Balearic Acid’ brings a psychedelic flavour with its bouncing rhythms, and ‘Shape Shift’ explores darkness with one of the dirtiest beats you’re likely to hear this year. However the obvious highlight here is ‘Euphoria 2K’. The track slowly builds from washing waves of white noise to an ever-accelerating, bass-heavy beat which just grows and grows into one of the finest crescendos I’ve ever heard. | | 7 |  | Ulver
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
The only other record by Ulver I’ve ever listened to is their seminal debut, and so delving into The Assassination of Julius Caesar was interesting to say the least. Lying within is a set of extremely polished and professional synthpop songs, a far cry from the band’s black metal roots. In predictably experimental fashion the band push pop music to the limits in terms of song structures and atmosphere; ‘Southern Gothic’ brings some irresistibly gloomy vocal melodies to the table, ‘Rolling Stone’ progresses from a low-tempo stomping beat into a ‘On the Run’-style driving wall of sound, and closer ‘Coming Home’ features some extremely strange saxophone motifs flittering in and out of the mix, giving the track a tribal feel. Ultimately this record is an example of Ulver making a thoroughly enjoyable attempt at yet another style of music, making them one of the most eclectic bands around.
Favourite track: Rolling Stone | | 6 |  | Alter
Pendulum
One of the more obscure records on this list, this Baltimore trio play shoegaze on the more gloomy end of the spectrum. While this record doesn’t exactly see the band reinvent the wheel, its the quality of the songs themselves that makes the album so good. The songwriting approach is very simple, utilising a thick, fuzzy bass section and distorted guitar riffs over standard verse-chorus structures. The vocals complement the gloomy nature of the music perfectly, staying mainly in the background and providing a reverberated backdrop to the heavy instrumentals in typical shoegaze style. Clocking in at just 28 minutes, Pendulum feels more like an EP than a full-length, but this brevity means that the record has absolutely no filler, providing a consistently enjoyable experience throughout.
Favourite track: False Mirror | | 5 |  | Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche
Pas pire pop, I Love You So Much
Despite only being Avec le Soleil’s second release, Pas Pire Pop is the sound of a band with a fully-realised, cohesive sound. One of the more colourful and vibrant releases of 2017, the Canadian outfit blend elements of psychedelic rock, krautrock and funk beneath obscure, shouted vocals. What’s amazing about this release is how well it flows from track to track, despite being jam-packed with unexpected twists and turns. Nowhere is this better exemplified than on the track ‘Alizé et Margaret D. Midi moins le quart. Sur la plage, un palmier ensanglanté I’, where the radiant staccato rhythms suddenly break off towards the end of the track into a furious blastbeat section. It’s a great encapsulation of how this record perfectly combines barminess with accessibility, a quality that obviously enamoured Constellation Records enough to sign the band to their books.
Favourite track: Alizé et Margaret D. Midi moins le quart. Sur la plage, un palmier ensanglanté I | | 4 |  | Electric Moon
Stardust Rituals
Electric Moon are a criminally underrated and overlooked stoner rock band from Germany who find success where a lot of their contemporaries fail: by keeping their use of repetition fresh and engaging. Where a lot of stoner rock bands seem to endlessly bludgeon the listener with the same riff over and over again, Electric Moon add genuinely interesting lead lines and psychedelic sound effects over repetitive bass riffs, creating a sound cosmic in scope. From the krautrock-inspired opener to the flurry of strings which engulf the closer’s final minutes, Stardust Rituals has to go down as one of 2017s hidden gems.
Favourite track: (You Will) Live Forever
Read my review of the album here: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/75147/Electric-Moon-Stardust-Rituals/ | | 3 |  | The Ruins of Beverast
Exuvia
Outside of the genre’s more canonised bands, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more consistent and challenging black metal outfit than The Ruins of Beverast. Over time the one-man project has transformed his work from primitive, extremely lo-fi production values to what we have now with Exuvia: an expansive, intricately-layered and, dare I say, psychedelic offering. Some of the walls of sound on this record are absolutely gargantuan, and not in the the usual monotonous ‘one-chord-progression-per-ten-minutes’ way in which a lot of atmospheric black metal bands express themselves, but rather in a way which allows several of these songs to reach massive crescendos. Meanwhile there are an abundance of tempo and rhythm changes to keep things engaging, as well as some genuinely eerie vocal sampling and unorthodox instruments flittering in and out of the mix to give the album its aforementioned psychedelic flavour.
Favourite track: Exuvia | | 2 |  | Elder (USA-MA)
Reflections of a Floating World
I had extremely high expectations going into this album given that I’d fallen in love with Lore just before the release of Reflections, and from the very first listen I was absolutely delighted to find that this is even better than its predecessor. No one plays stoner metal quite like Elder, their extremely flashy and progressive take on the genre putting them head and shoulders above their modern contemporaries, and this is clear to see here. ‘Sanctuary’ opens up the album in surprisingly catchy form with soaring lead vocals - an aspect of the band that has improved immeasurably since Lore - and ‘Staving off the Truth’ is possibly a precursor to ‘post-stoner’ with one of Elder’s best crescendos emerging in the middle of the track. Undoubtedly the album’s highlight, though, is ‘The Falling Veil’, where the sheer technicality of the rhythms make them more akin to lead lines than typical sludgy stoner riffs.
Favourite track: The Falling Veil | | 1 |  | Boring Bathtimes
Loss
Earlier in the year I decided that I needed something more challenging and experimental than what I was already accustomed to, and so the discovery of this album was an inspirational one. A single-track behemoth that blends elements of drone, folk, chamber music and post-rock, the contrast between the album’s sonic grandeur and the artist’s D.I.Y. approach makes for an utterly enchanting album experience. Anything that may make this album inaccessible or even esoteric is immediately balanced by a sense of emotional intensity so palpable as to be almost completely irresistible. I reviewed the record earlier in the year so I won’t gush over it much further, but in summary I find Loss to be one of the most visceral and evocative albums released within the last few years, and certainly worthy of my top spot for 2017.
Read my review of the album here: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/73178/Boring-Bathtimes-Loss/ | |
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